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Tuesday, 20 April 2010

Bound for Barcelona

I am now sitting in Singapore Chang Airport's new terminal 3, having enjoyed their amazing toilets, writing this entry and finally being able to relax. It has been a roller coaster ride of emotions for the past week leading up to today but we are finally on our way to Barcelona!

A fantastic weekend away in Canberra was marred by the recurrence of my left lacrimal gland infection. It just didn't respond to oral antibiotics and required intravenous antibiotics to give it a kick up its butt. That of course meant hospitalisation, crazily organising childcare and missing out on 3 days of work! In seriousness, the inability to work on my long "to-do" list before our holiday was frustrating. I returned home earlier than planned only to discover that a volcano has erupted in Iceland sending ash plumes over the UK. Then spent the next few days watching in horror as the airport closures spread throughout Europe including Barcelona. Our flight was cancelled. And in desperation we bought the only tickets we could find into Europe, flying with Aerolineas Argentinas into Madrid via Auckland and Buenos Aires. What followed was a complete drama in itself.

On the 19th of April, we were told 4 times by Singapore airlines that our flight was cancelled. It was only upon checking their website at 8pm that we found out the flight had been reinstated. After a mad flurry of phonecalls, it was confirmed that the flight was going ahead but we had no seats on the plane. 4 hours later, still no resolution but a further interesting development unveiled itself. Jonah still had his seat!!!

Determined, we set out to be at the ticket office in the airport by 8am to argue our case. We had until 945am before we had to check in for our horrendous alternative route. Persistence paid off, at exactly 930am, we had acquired ourselves seats on SQ378 on Singapore Airlines to Barcelona. Woohoo!!! In the end, it worked out for the best as the flight will now go direct to Barcelona as Milan is still closed saving us one extra stop.

Waiting to check into our flight to Singapore

Our plan B plane!

The children did very well today considering the early start. Elliot and Lara were almost unnoticeable with the on-demand entertainment system doing its job. Jonah was a surprise package. Although very active when he was awake, he voluntarily chose to sit in his chair when it was close to his bedtime and put himself to sleep.

Elliot enjoying games and Lara enthralled with the Fantastic Mr Fox

Jonah sleeping in his seat

We have to go now, to try and sort out a better seating arrangement. We are all separated. I don't anyone would appreciate having to sit with Jonah for 13 hours...